Mark Mulligan

Mark Mulligan is a music analyst and the founder at MIDiA Research. He is a long-term tech analyst and a leading digital thinker with more than 20 years of experience, working with leading global music, entertainment, and tech companies. At MIDiA, Mark focuses on the streaming and creator economies, as well as music business trends and market metrics such as forecasts and market shares.

Songwriters aren’t getting paid enough – here’s why

Mark Mulligan

10 Sep 2019

songwriters Streaming Royalties Music streaming

Editors note: Since this blog was first published, MIDiA has expanded its research into the challenges facing songwriters in the current music industry landscape. Find out more here . Music Business Worldwide recentlyran a storyon how Apple has proposed a standard streaming rate for songwriters, wit...

How technology is radically reshaping politics

Mark Mulligan

6 Sep 2019

Media News politics

As I write this, the UK is in the midst of a potential constitutional crisis following the UK government’s proposed changes to political norms in order to push through Brexit. In some ways this is what you get when a country only has a part-written constitution and never quite got round to phasing...

Cover image for Spotify Q2 2019 Earnings

Spotify Q2 2019 Earnings
Mature Markets Still the Engine Room of Growth

Mark Mulligan

29 Aug 2019

Subscriptions Streaming Streaming Music

Q2 2019 was another solid quarter for Spotify, adding the same number of subscribers it typically does in promotional quarters. Core metrics such as churn and average revenue per user (ARPU) all moved in the right direction, but Spotify remains out of contract with two major label partners and needs emerging markets’ subscriber growth to start pi...

Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) August 23rd 2019

Mark Mulligan

23 Aug 2019

Take Five Cultural trends

Taylor Swift, pre-sale love: Taylor Swift tends not to adhere to prevailing industry trends. As a millennial artist with a strong Gen Z following, streaming should rightly be the core of her recordings career.

Cover image for Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) August 23rd 2019

Why Spotify and Netflix Need to Worry About a Global Recession

Mark Mulligan

23 Aug 2019

economic downturn entertainment spend global recession

A growing body of economists is becoming increasingly convinced that a global recession is edging closer. The last time we experienced a global economic downturn was the 2008 credit crunch. Although the coming recession will likely be a bigger shock to the global economy, it nonetheless gives us a b...

Take Five (The Big Five Stories and Data You Need To Know)

Mark Mulligan

19 Aug 2019

Spotify, price hike: Pricing is streaming’s big problem. With premium revenue growth set to slow and ARPU declining due to family plans, discounts, bundles etc., the business needs another way to drive revenue.

Cover image for Take Five (The Big Five Stories and Data You Need To Know)

Take Five (The Big Five Stories and Data You Need to Know)

Mark Mulligan

12 Aug 2019

Data Point Of The Day take 5 Games

Apple ups its artist analytics but do artists care? Kobalt and Spotify both helped reshape the music industry’s understanding of what role data should play and how it should be presented. Apple announced its Apple Music for Artists (AMFA) is coming out of beta with a whole host of cool dashboards ...

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Backing Both Horses: The Thinking Behind Tencent’s UMG Stake

Mark Mulligan

6 Aug 2019

bytedance i-mode Tencent

As long expected, Tencent is poised to take a stake in Vivendi, reported to be 10%. While the news might not be surprising, there are a number of important factors at play: Tencent fast-tracked? Given that various entities stated their interest in investing in UMG, Vivendi appears to have fast-track...

Take Five (the big five stories and data you need to know) August 5th 2019

Mark Mulligan

5 Aug 2019

cricket ECB Facebook

Spotify - steady sailing, for now: Spotify hit 108 million subscribers in Q2 2019 – which is exactly what we predicted. Spotify continues to grow in line with the wider market, maintaining market share.

State of the Streaming Nation 3.0: Multi-Paced Growth

Mark Mulligan

30 Jul 2019

Regular followers of MIDiA will know that one of our flagship releases is our State of the Streaming Nation report. Now into its third year, this report is the definitive assessment of the streaming music market.

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The Frank Ocean Days May Be Gone, but Streaming Disintermediation Is Just Getting Going

Mark Mulligan

24 Jul 2019

Marketing Music

Music Business Worldwide recently ran a story highlighting that both Spotify and Apple Music were backing independent artist (i.e. independent of record label rather than an indie label artist) Aaron Smith, including featuring him in priority playlists such as Spotify’s New Music Friday.

Cover image for State of the Podcast Nation

State of the Podcast Nation

Mark Mulligan

23 Jul 2019

Apple Spotify Radio

Podcasts are an overnight success many years in the making. Podcasts were first added to Apple’s iTunes ecosystem in 2005, only to then spend a long time in the shadows. Now, however, they occupy the centre stage with radio companies, podcast vendors, streaming services and traditional media companies alike all trying to carve out roles.

Cover image for Artist Fandom

Artist Fandom
The Artist Marketing Playbook Needs Rewriting

Mark Mulligan

19 Jul 2019

Spotify Artists Taylor Swift

The whole essence of fandom is being turned upside down. An emerging crop of streaming native artists is finding its audience in a much more targeted and efficient way than via traditional music marketing. Instead of blowing a huge budget on carpet bombing TV, radio, and print, online artists and their teams are finding their exact audiences by foc...

New MIDiA Artist Survey – Take Part!

Mark Mulligan

16 Jul 2019

Artist survey DIY artists Independent artists

Firstly, thanks to all of you who took part in our artist survey last year. If you did so, you should by now have received the link to the free report. If not, email us at info@midiaresearch and we’ll get it to you.

Cover image for Independent Artists

Independent Artists
The Music Industry Rewritten

Mark Mulligan

12 Jul 2019

Creators Labels rhapsody

The rise of independent artists is one of the most important changes to happen to the modern recorded music business. While traditional label models still dominate, ever more artists are pursuing non-traditional alternatives, ranging from self-releasing through to joint-venture label service deals with majors.

Independent Artists: The Age of Empowerment

Mark Mulligan

11 Jul 2019

Amuse artist careers Artist survey

MIDiA is proud to announce an exclusive new report in conjunction with Amuse – Independent Artists: The Age of Empowerment . The report is based on a global survey of independent artists that we conducted earlier this year, with respondents from all of the world’s continents.

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Free-to-Attend Event: Monetising Fandom

Mark Mulligan

10 Jul 2019

artist brands artist data audience data

Join us on Wednesday 17 th July in central London for MIDiA’s next free-to-attend event: Monetising Fandom in a Fragmented Content Landscape. Regular attendees of our events will know that they combine great new data and analysis with insightful panels and a mix of attendees not quite like at any ...

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The Artist Marketing Playbook Needs Rewriting

Mark Mulligan

5 Jul 2019

artist marketing artist streams Artists

The whole essence of fandom is being turned upside down. An emerging crop of streaming-native artists is finding its audience in a much more targeted and efficient way than via the traditional music marketing.

Cover image for The Artist Marketing Playbook Needs Rewriting

Big Machine (Inadvertently) Just Did a Promo Ad for Label Services Deals

Mark Mulligan

1 Jul 2019

Amuse awakl Bandcamp

The sales of Taylor Swift’s former label Big Machine Records to Scooter Braun has resulted in an ugly spat that has been played out very publicly. First Braun enthused about acquiring a ‘brilliant’ company and the global ‘opportunities’.

Cover image for State of the Music Publishing Nation

State of the Music Publishing Nation

Mark Mulligan and Zach Fuller

20 Jun 2019

Spotify Spotify Kobalt

This report, a first from MIDiA dedicated to the music publishing space, addresses the most important trends in the industry. With 2018 seeing revenues continue their accelerated growth and music publishing emerging as an asset class, now is opportune to reflect on one of the often misunderstood and hence undervalued aspects of the recorded music i...

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